Industry sources have told East Asian media that they believe the penetration rate for fingerprint-recognition sensors in the smartphone market will rise above 50% in 2017.

Speaking to Taiwan’s DigiTimes, the sources said that, based on their figures, the figure reached 40% in 2016 from only 20% in 2015.

This indicates demand for fingerprint sensors has been growing robustly, wrote the newspaper.

“Falling ASPs has also been accelerating the adoption of fingerprint sensors by handset vendors, said the observers. An increase in the number of suppliers has led to fiercer competition in the market.”

The report goes on to note that it expects progress in the China market by China- and Taiwan-based fingerprint sensor suppliers including Egis Technology (Egistec), Elan Microelectronics, FocalTech Systems, Goodix Technology and Silead.

“China- and Taiwan-based IC design houses were once lagging behind their international rivals in the development of fingerprint sensors. However, the players have gone through their learning curves and obtained orders from brand handset vendors starting the second half of 2016, the observers indicated.”